Tabula Rasa
by neurofeces
Summary: Hey. You alright?" Kuga gave a mirthless laugh from behind his fingers. "...She's asking questions." Mizunagi gave an expressive eye roll. "So that's it, then? We give up and tell her the truth?" Kuga frowned, "You know that's not an option."
1. I: Pater

Let's keep this a simple introduction, shall we?

Summary: _"Hey. You alright?" Kuga gave a mirthless laugh from behind his fingers. "...She's asking questions." He managed in a tense murmur. Mizunagi gave an expressive eye roll and snuffed his cigarette in the glass ashtray on the table. "So that's it, then? We give up and tell her the truth?" Kuga lowered his hand, face troubled. "That's not an option, you know."_

Premise of the story: What happened to Kaoru's group post Mana-eats-your-unhappiness-and-fills-it-with-happy-sunflower-cloaks?

What I plan to do with it: Follow it to its natural end as I see it. It's a great setup, and I finally have down all the minor characters enough to work with them. (Yes!) It should be pretty straightforward, and only as complicated or simple as I make it. Nice little idea... I just need to figure out how long _after_ the canon I want to set it and I'm about set. (Flippin' Sweet!) But that tells all you just about nothing about what I'm going to do with this...which...well...is as it should be? (And here, I get pwnzor'd by irate fans for my roundabout nature...)

Hey! ..._What_? It's unusual I give out a fragment of a whole fic without knowing where it's going, but I've done so this time! I really _can't_ give that much away. I hate to put readers on a "your life and death depends on my creativity" sort of noose, but what can I say? If I decide not to continue it, then I'll probably ask anyone and everyone who wishes to "fill it in" to continue it however they like and post it on-site as _their_ story. (And so the fandom will be filled with all sorts of beautifully different takes on what happened! How wonderful! My evil plan to save the world will have root!) Sound good? So...um...any of you who like this sort of thing, start thinking what you'd do with it. It might turn out just to be a spectacular little prompt. Or...who knows...maybe a roleplay or something interesting. (Or just different.) All I know is it's about time I did something to rev up the creative juices in this place, and this fit the bill. It's summer. I'm heat-touched. I live in Miami Florida. I'm allowed to be crazy in the heat. (There's lots of heat down here. And humidity too. Grow epiphytes for fun, that kind of stuff... Fly through the air like the Black Orchid... Play in the street. Get hit by cars. Make Mashed Potatoes. All that jazz in a palm-tree-and-hurricane-rich environment..)

Anyway, I wanted to do something that turned out entirely differently than all those convoluted things I write otherwise. I wanted to remake my fanon universe a few times over just to shake the borders of reality. I wanted a chance to take things a completely different way, and get my brain into a completely different "translation" of my initial take, which with I've worked these past...oh dear...is it really five years?

The best way I can describe this sudden fit of whimsy is with a quote:

"I am following my fish." -Delirium of the Endless

Clearly, this is me being wild and unusual and carefree. _And _following my fish. (Heavens have mercy on us if _all_ of you went around swimming through the ocean whenever the fancy hit you...)

No complaining, y'hear. (Unless you want to get after me for shoddy updating schedules of other fics, in which case, you're allowed.)

Don't you see? You _too _must follow the singing fishes. (grin) ...Or be covered all over with invisible bugses forever and ever.

(PS: Virtual cake to those who know my semi-literary references. And _this_ cake is not a lie, yo.)

**Reasons this fic is rated T: Alright, so it's not quite as bad as usual, just whenever I have an implied pair of men together and doing bad things, I like to bump up the rating just in case. Nothing graphic, just a reference. S'n M habits at that. Perhaps even less language than usual. Pretty tame if you're used to me. But just in case you're not... (I am an entry drug! Oh drama!)**

Heavens above, why do I feel like this would be a really great shoujo manga? Like...one of those 16+ fantasydrama thingies I always make fun of? (Not that there's much I don't make fun of--myself most of all...) Ah how the circle comes around to bite you in the six... (This being just another of the convoluted cliche-rewrites I have to offer in real life as I express all the earmarks of being an eccentric young gentleman while in fact being a straight woman. I blame this on being born in the year of the snake: if men hug me, I transform into a certain creature offering forbidden apples--God's truth!)

Actually...virtual cake might be a little low of an incentive considering _all_ my semi-literary references...

Virtual cake with the young man (or woman!) of your choice chained within it, quivering, and covered in some sort of desert topping, for guessing my references. (Another way for you to amuse yourselves in reviews. Oh, the competition!)

_Or_ if your tastes are more like mine, a nice, fine geek man with bulging muscles between thumb and forefinger from skilled Halo or Super Smash Bros. playing, in your living room, with a pile of nachos, V8, Mountain Dew, and possibly some creepy crawly bottom-dwelling marine "bugs" cooked to perfection. (_I'd_ enter a contest for that. Hot _damn_... I sit in my room and write fanfiction all day, and wonder why I'm still single for nineteen years...)

_Because I still refuse to disclaim, and so support Desert.Illusion--whatever may have struck her--I rain random quotes: _

_"Halp! Creative juices are corrosive!"-Foolish Mortal_

-o-O-o-O-o-

**Tabula Rasa**

_1. (In Philosophy) __**the mind prior to experiences: **_

_the mind at birth, regarded as having no innate conceptions_

_2. __**Chance to start afresh:**__ an opportunity to make a clean break or a fresh start_

_(Mid-16th century from the Latin _

_meaning literally "scraped table" or "blank slate")_

-o-O-o-O-o-

**- I: **_**Pater**_**-**

-o-O-o-

Kuga put his hand over his eyes, leaning against the door. It shut with a dull _click_ behind him.

Mizunagi frowned from the table. "Hey. You alright?" Kuga gave a mirthless laugh from behind his fingers. "...She's asking questions." He managed in a tense murmur.

Mizunagi gave an expressive eye roll and snuffed his cigarette in the glass ashtray on the table. "...So that's it, then? We give up and tell her the truth?" Kuga lowered his hand, face troubled. "That's not an option, you know." He murmured. Mizunagi snorted, giving his strange smile, the one that never reached his eyes. "Well. Not for _you_." He drew up his legs, standing and tapping another cigarette from the case in his back pocket. "You can't keep her in the dark forever. She's a woman."

"She's a _girl_." Kuga whispered painfully, his face flinching. Mizunagi's smile crept wider, catlike. "Mm, I know. It's fun to go out and have people point out the lovely father and daughter pair, I'll bet." Kuga's face gave a transparently guilty twitch. Mizunagi, ever the cool customer, gave no evidence of noticing. "Rough for you." He added with perfect nonchalance, "She's your _little girl_. But...she's not so little anymore now is she? Don't you think it's time she-?" Kuga cut him off. "_Mizunagi_!" Kasei stood in the staircase, and Ama-Inu was sullenly chewing a stalk of celery, knees up to his chin, sitting on the same stairs as though folded in on himself. Mizunagi paused at the crunch of Ama-Inu's snack.

Kasei's face was blank, even unmasked. His fair hair had grown slightly, and his Arayshiki house tattoo capped his shoulder in wary black velvet. "Trouble?" Kasei asked flatly. Mizunagi shrugged, his mild, dangerous, insincere smile ever present. "Master's asking Kuga questions. Nothing more." His eyes glittered and flicked to Kasei with almost an inclination of his head. "Nothing less." He knew the tattoo only really showed when Kasei was prepared to use his powers, as a typical Arayashiki's mark always did. It was a goad, but also a visible mark of mutual restlessness. How long had it been since any of them had killed someone? They were all restless, all on edge...

Ama-Inu gave another crunch from the foot of the stairs. "So?" he grumbled. He gave an audible gulp of vegetable, leaves sticking out of his mouth like forlorn, drowning arms. His face still looked craggy and blunt as ever, and if his hair had grown, it had only grown upwards--not that a seven-foot-tall demon needed any height benefits due to hairstyle. Only hints of light would show a hollow ruby tone to his eyes--unusual, but...not much of a problem considering how absurd the idea was that anyone could really match height enough to see eye to eye with Ama-Inu. He had no apparent pupil or iris except for the faint edge one could see up close, which revealed an oddly clear, almond-shaped point in the middle of either liquid ruby eye. Currently, both of his unusual eyes looked normal and simply dark in the faint light. The eyes and the height aside, Ama-Inu seemed human. He wasn't, of course, but he was good at seeming it. Moreso than some of the humans in the room, that was.

"We alrea'y knew it was comin'." the demon grumbled.

Kasei nodded, padding soundlessly from the stairs, and swiping the cigarette from Mizunagi's mouth, lit it, undaunted. Kuga tensed, watching the psychic. But Mizunagi only shook his head, bemusedly, and palmed another from the packet in his back pocket. Kasei held the smoking cylinder with easy grace and elegance. His tongue flickered against his lip for a moment as he gazed out one of the tiny little windows. He finally added in his quiet voice, "Since there's no cause to pretend I didn't hear...What sort of questions has she asked? There's no cause to run about in panic needlessly." Mizunagi nodded faintly, still bemused. "Right." Ama-Inu grinned, a fang hanging out of the corner of his lip. "'Course he's _right_." Kasei's truly black eyes turned in their sockets. "Shh...Don't howl, puppy." He whispered, putting a finger to his lips. Nonetheless his lips curled upwards slightly at the edges, and he eased the cigarette between them. He blinked, and the movement sent stray tendrils of blond hair quivering. Ama-Inu glowered and gnawed the rest of his celery, munching and crossing his arms.

Mizunagi smirked, the dark opposite of pale Kasei, minus his thin scarf, and the sword tied over the shoulder. "You _nervous_, Kasei?" He teased. He knew perfectly well how Kasei felt, but reading Kasei was like reading a model's face. He was all posture, all _pose_, revealing nothing. Kasei looked at him and shrugged, easily, fitting the cigarette barely between his lips. His eyes betrayed no more than Mizunagi's did. Nonetheless, the psychic smiled. He knew.

"'Course he's _nervous_--doesn't smoke when he _isn't_." Ama-Inu grumbled. "You're moaning, puppy." Kasei replied quietly, with the air of one commenting on the atmosphere. Ama-Inu's face stretched in a terrible, fanged grin, as though goading him. "Mizunagi has no need to know the private habits of his housemates." The Arayashiki added, finally taking a lengthy drag of smoke, and letting it out in a cloudy wreath about his head. Mizunagi smirked at Ama-Inu. "No. Really. I'm sure you're both very fascinating people, but I don't need to know that. It's like your toothbrush color to me." Ama-Inu frowned as though reconciling the idea of a toothbrush in his head. "We have more important things to know." Kasei murmured, black eyes sliding to Kuga.

Kuga threaded his hands through his hair unhappily. "She...Master asked me if I were really her father." he said quietly, though nonetheless finally, as though bringing them back onto topic.

Mizunagi snorted, breathing smoke through his nostrils. "That's a definite wrench right there. Should we say it's really Kasei?" Kasei shot him a bland look, voice still perfectly level, toneless. "Such a thing would only increase Master's suspicions, as you surely know." Ama-Inu glowered at him. "An' I'm not master's momma. So shut yor face 'fore I smash it." Mizunagi raised his palms. "I don't have the faintest idea where you got that idea from. I wasn't going to say a word. And maybe _I_ feel especially motherly lately-" Kasei cut him off with a quiet noise that could have been a single, muffled laugh or a cough in the throat. Ama-Inu peered at him, as though not sure what he'd just heard. Mizunagi however, said nothing, only smirked to himself, triumpahantly. The demon's face arranged itself into a frown and he glowered at Mizunagi. "Stupi' E.G.O." He muttered. Mizunagi pretended he didn't hear.

Kuga's eyebrows pinched, and he massaged the bridge of his nose. "I...didn't answer her, but she's certain to be persistant. And we couldn't _possibly _do something like that. She already knows..." He trailed off. Kasei lightly raised his eyebrows. "Knows?" Ama-Inu scowled. "What? That me an' Kasei-?" Kasei raised his voice over him, warningly. "_Quiet_, puppy."

Mizunagi gave him a look of bemusement, his tone light. "Well, it doesn't surprise me that she knows about the odd couple. She _is_ still our master. The bonds are still there, she just doesn't know how to use them, thanks to Kirihara." The other mindbreaker's name made them all tense. The tattoo flickered on Kasei's shoulder. Ama-Inu shifted with a shuffling motion, as though far too large for the space he was in, and grumbled under his breath, "Could be she knows just 'cause he's _loud_. He's a _sadist_ in bed-" He yelped as a cigarette few across the room and struck him in the hand with its embering end. Kasei had twisted himself about sharply, "You're asking for a newspaper to the nose, puppy." Frost lingered in his voice. "Don't bother. He'd probably like it too much." Mizunagi added in, grinning, eyes slitting in unusual humor. Kuga frowned. "This is _serious_, you understand." He said quietly.

"We know that." Mizunagi replied. Kasei gave a slight dip of his head in an agreeing nod. Ama-Inu rumbled a "Yeah, s'right." from the staircase, still rubbing at his hand.

"We're serious. Aren't we always? We, who beat a man for looking at her twice-" Mizunagi said lightly, still smiling coldly.

"Castrate him for a disrespectful word-" Kasei added quietly, cradling his cigarette almost dreamily.

"Make him eat his own _guts_ for _touchin_' her-!" Ama-Inu added after, with a feral gleam of delight to his eyes.

"We're _very_ serious men." Mizunagi finished, looking overall very pleased, though there was no humor in his glittering beetle-black eyes. "She is our master. Our _only_ master." The psychic inclined his head. "Don't be so _absorbed_, Kuga. We have our bonds to her as well. As strong as yours." Ama-Inu raised a massive fist and pounded the stair in agreement. "Yeah! Stronger!" he added with an air of boasting and a brazen snigger. Kuga said nothing, only frowned at the demon uneasily.

He finally looked at them all wearily, fingers to a temple. "...You guys have any suggestions of what to do about it, then?" Kuga asked quietly, the agitated twist to his eyebrows becoming more pronounced. "I...don't know if I can lie to her and say I'm her father any longer..." His tone was reasonable, but the strain was etched in every line of his body and face. Mizunagi gave a sneering smile. "This isn't the first time I've said your little girl is growing up..."

Kasei fiddled idly with a lock of his pale hair, ignoring Mizunagi. "Is there any possibility of locating Kirihara again and resealing master? That seems a valid question."

Quiet resulted in which Kuga's face pinched instantly.

Ama-Inu frowned at the excorcist. "...Whazzat _look _for?" Mizunagi glanced at Kuga with his cold black eyes. "Mn. Kasei's direct as ever. Still...I'd say he's right. A reasealing would buy you the time. It's worth a look." Ama-Inu scowled blackly from his scrunched-up position on the stairs. "How? We've _lost_ the birdie. _You_ wanna go look, Mizunagi? _Her _people aren't _useless _anymore. An' _she's_ got an _Eraser_." Kasei idly picked ash off his fingers. "No. They aren't...useless." He murmured. Something had tightened in his voice.

Mizunagi's lips curled. "Had a run in, have we? Maybe, since you suggested it, _you'd _like to make contact and _ask_?" He offered. His eyes were hard as flint. "You could see that boy again. The one you let beat you. Maybe he'd do it for you _again_." Kasei's back went rigid, and his eyes became pits of hard fire through the curtain of his hair, his voice low and lethal when he spoke, "...He isn't my _type_." Kuga sighed. "That _is_ the other half of the issue."

Mizunagi and Kasei turned their eyes to him, and Mizunagi even blinked, his smile dropping for a moment. Ama-Inu stared. "...Kasei's type?" The demon ventured finally. Mizunagi snorted, not even bothering to hide his amusement. Kasei simply shut his eyes. Kuga put a hand over his sinuses, clearing his throat, embarassed. "Erm. No. I meant...Kaoru...doesn't always seem to view us as...four..."

Mizunagi's smile was rigid, and Kasei's brows pinched. Ama-Inu just crunched vegetation, the leafy arms disappearing into his fanged mouth. He seemed comfortably busy in thought--possibly speculating on Kasei's type.

"...Are you _suggesting_ that she thinks Lafayel is still alive?" Kasei asked in a soft voice that bore a hint of steel. Ama-Inu gave an uneasy look, drawn from his thoughts. He growled through his mouthful,"The bird's been gone for _ages_. He's gotta be dead or she'd 'a called him back...right?" Mizunagi gave a half-shrug, though his eyes were flickering, as though reading his own memories. "My you're getting rather theoretical there. But...even you guys probably knew Lafayel didn't always act the way he was supposed to, _and_ he resisted, if you remember." Kasei's eyebrows knotted. "I don't." He said flatly. "Yeah well you didn't know him as well as I did, now did you?" Mizunagi replied almost sweetly. Kasei's eyes narrowed slightly.

Ama-Inu wrinkled his nose, jumping to conclusions first. "...Thought you said you liked _girls_-" Kasei sighed and reached over to lightly tug a tuft of Ama-Inu's matted hair. "You beg from the wrong hand, puppy." Ama-Inu quieted, and Mizunagi's black eyes glittered amusement. "I _do_ like girls. Besides, Lafayel was taken, didn't you know?" Ama-Inu started with a bellow, "WHA? THAT _BRAT_-?" Kasei locked an elbow beneath his jaw, quieting him. "_Quiet_, puppy, you'll howl down the bitch." Kuga's face twisted, but he said nothing to correct Kasei's language.

The former exorcist looked at Mizunagi blankly. "Is that...why he fought so?" He ventured. One could always trust Kuga to _try_ to be broad minded, though even his face was showing a bit of strain trying to reconcile the idea of skinny, scantily clad, dark-winged Lafayel having a _lover_. Mizunagi shrugged congenially. "Could be. Actually, I don't exactly have proof of the "taken" thing. He has that sort of air around him, like he's either entirely more selfish than you think he is, or he has someone else to fight against Master for. He just sort of gives off a "taken" sort of air. Makes you wonder what she looked like..."

Ama-Inu spluttered a choked laugh. "_She_. Didja _hear_, Kasei? He said _sh-_" He gagged midway through the line as Kasei's arm tightened its hold. Kasei put his chin down in Ama-Inu's filthy hair. "I thought I trained you _better_, puppy." He whispered with a frightening grin. "I thought we were _past_ the choke collar." Ama-Inu made a gurgling noise. Kuga looked at him worriedly, but the demon shot both Mizunagi and Kuga a crooked grin.

Mizunagi's lips quirked at the corners. Kuga still looked worried, but he turned away, reluctantly, ears still pricked for the sound of the frighteningly tall demon passing out from lack of oxygen. Kasei's dark eyes were slits of amusement. "Pay no attention to this howling dog, he enjoys being difficult." the slender blonde added nonchalantly. "You say Lafayel may be alive, though? Potentially?" He added in a tone that seemed more polite than inquiring. Mizunagi shrugged. "As I said, it's pretty theoretical. Being a psychic doesn't tell you everything. _Theoretically_, if master didn't remember, she might not know how to call him back. And Lafayel being who he was, I don't think he'd need a push to run off on his own."

Kuga frowned. "If this is so...Lafayel may very _well _be alive." Relief flooded his face, smoothing his worried features. "I'm glad..." Ama-Inu made a strained noise, and Kasei finally let him go. The demon gasped for breath, color rushing into his face. Running a finger along a flattened lock of hair just behind the demon's ear, Kasei sat, eyes glittering and watching. "Glad? Strange... It...complicates matters..." Kasei murmured almost absently. Kuga turned, amazed. "What? What do you mean by that, Kasei? _Why_?"

Kasei raised his head slightly, face perfectly bland, blank, _calm_. "If Lafayel lives, it provides incentive to allow Master to remember. She would call him back. That's all I implied." Mizunagi nodded idly, smirking around his cigarette. "Erasers are powerful." he added in. Kuga's face betrayed his distress at the thought. Kasei's lips parted in an eerie smile. "Put your tongue back in, puppy." He murmured behind him, not even turning his head. Ama-Inu grumbled up at him, face still rather blue. "What. A guy's not allowed to pant?" Kasei's grin widened--meaningless as a model's--and he rubbed harder behind Ama-Inu's ears, the demon slumped over, still catching his breath. "Nice to be..._five_ again..." Ama-Inu muttered.

Mizunagi suddenly smirked. "You know Kuga doesn't like hearing that." Kasei's smile flattened back into nothingness. "One doesn't always receive the world on a platter as he wishes." He replied blithely. Ama-Inu whispered hoarsely, "Weirdo likes little girls..." Kasei administered a sharp blow with his fingers to Ama-Inu's nose. The demon howled, and grabbed his face. Kasei raised his face. "Not that." He clarified almost sweetly, murmuring into Ama-Inu's ear. "Kuga's clearly benefitted the most from this façade. The regaining of master's memories could prove...a complicating factor for him."

Kuga's face twisted and he looked down. Ama-Inu's head lifted, and he studied Kuga. "Well sure he has..." He rumbled. Something like sympathy came into his face. "Treatin' her like his little girl. He won't _get _to if she-" Kasei grabbed him by the face, quieting him. "Clearly, puppy, _clearly_." He replied with near-lightness. His black eyes flicked to Kuga. "And I'd suggest a different tactic in this event. We don't _need_ her to regain her memories to my knowledge, just as we do not necessarily need them repressed. ...Mizunagi?"

Mizunagi shrugged, lips still formed in a smile. "If you let your pet speak he'd get a vote in on this. He misses the blood, I'd bet." Ama-Inu peeled down the hand over the lower half of his face. "Yeah." He assented, looking back at Kasei cautiously. Kasei's expression became frosty insofar as one could tell when nothing really changed from one expression to another. It was more his body language, though even that was rather minimal. Ama-Inu's voice rose defiantly. "I miss it. Nothin' like a good straight out fight." Kasei's lips curled in distaste. "You get that every night, puppy." he said in a very low, dangerous voice, though perhaps there was what passed for a teasing edge to it with Kasei. Judging by how Ama-Inu blinked, and scratched his head, he hadn't thought of that. "Huh. Yeah. I guess. But I can't kill _you_." Mizunagi grinned and this time it hit his eyes. "Heh. _True_ love, right there, Kasei." Kasei glared at him. "Shut it." He said tersely. Kuga only looked away, saying nothing.

Ama-Inu looked sheepishly at Mizunagi and Kuga. "S' a dog thing..." He muttered with a laborious shrug against teh leaning weight of Kasei. "Y'don't bite your master, y'know?" Kuga's eyebrows knotted. "_She_ is our master. _Kaoru_." His mouth pinched and he suddenly looked at Mizunagi. "Lafayel _disappeared_-" Mizunagi nodded cordially. "You mentioned that." Kuga wasn't amused. "Is there anything in your _experience_-?" Mizunagi interrupted him. "No need to become _angry_ with me, Kuga. And I've already answered that before. I owe you nothing. And as far as I know, Lafayel had no _talent_ for teleportation. His powers were different from mine. Even _if_ the rumors on the ancestry of the E.G.O. are true, his powers and mine are quite different. I've said it all before."

Kuga fumed for a moment, then seemed to deflate, and sighed. "...Yes. Excuse me. But...if there were a way to get Lafayel to return--_if_ he lives--without...encouraging the return of those...painful times-"

"And you think that would be possible?" Kasei asked quietly. Kuga didn't answer. Kasei raised his head ever so slightly, eyes fixed on Kuga's face. "I can't come up with a single scenario given that you seem to believe she'd _regret_ the loss of Lafayel. Assuming you are right, it bears risk as a triggering incident, don't you agree?" Ama-Inu fingered his own throat nervously. "Might be worth it, though. 'Erasers are powerful.' ...Right?" He looked at Mizunagi, then looked down, almost embarassed. "I mean...if she gets 'em back anyway...Good to be prepared, right?"

Kasei's chin raised, and his hand returned to stroking the flattened hair behind his ear. Ama-Inu's eyes shut in apparent bliss, a crooked grin on his face. Mizunagi shrugged, looking at Kuga. "Lafayel as insurance..." he shrugged again. "It's worth a shot. And at least it'd be some fun to see what he's up to. Like old times... You start to miss a shrew like him after a while."

Kuga's mouth thinned. "You've thought he was alive before this...didn't you?" He asked quietly. Mizunagi raised his eyebrows, and snorted. "Who? Me? You think I had some _magical insight_ into all this by my psychic powers?" He smirked. "I just know Lafayel." Kasei gazed at him placidly. "Master...has no powers to draw a reluctant Lafayel back with." Kasei pointed out. Mizunagi smirked like a man holding an ace. "Oh don't worry. He's not the sort to sit back and die. Not in a world _Israfel_-kun is in."

Kasei frowned. "Israfel..." He repeated. His eyes seemed to disfocus for a moment in thought, then he tugged a lock of Ama-Inu's hair. "Puppy?" He murmured in an undertone. Ama-Inu frowned, confused. "I dunno. Why you pullin' on me? I dunno an Issyfel. Think I know ev'ry angel in all a' damn Tokyo just 'cause I'm a demon?" He glowered muttering. "Like sayin' you're a _monk_ just 'cause you're an _Ara_-" Kasei gave a tug without even sparing a glance downwards and Ama-Inu's muttering was cut off in a yelp.

Mizunagi's smile didn't reach his eyes. "You don't remember?" He turned to the eraser-look-alike nearby. "Oh come on Kuga, he impaled himself on _your_ sword." Kuga frowned then his brown eyes widened. "..._That_?" Kasei's eyebrows lifted. "The impaling incident was due to master's will." He reminded flatly. "And it happened to Lafayel and Lafayel alone, to my knowledge." Ama-Inu snickered, "An' y'make it sound perverted like that." he added. Kasei gave the faintest long-suffering sort of sigh, and slammed an elbow down on Ama-Inu's head. The demon yelped again.

"I know, I know." Mizuangi said cheerfully. "Her will. Just like it was her will I sit there bandaging up the stupid sucker again. No, I'm talking about his crispy-_fried _self before that." Kuga frowned. "He..._did _have a great many bandages..." Mizuangi grinned. "There we go. None of you stopped to wonder what did that to him?"

The others were silent for a long moment.

Kasei nodded faintly. "I see. _Israfel_. The other eraser, I presume? The one who looked like a woman?"

Mizunagi's eyes suddenly betrayed amusement as well, and he laughed. "Oh yes, the one in Kirihara's group, to be exact. But I'm _reasonably_ sure he was a man. Boy's uniform at the school when he did it."-Kasei's nose wrinkled at this-"Lafayel was just _itching_ to kill him after that, though." Kuga frowned, "I remember..." he murmured gravely. Ama-Inu nodded jerkily. "Good fight, two erasers... Fun." Kasei tilted his head. "I seem to remember being cut off in my hunting of another of my faction by you, stating that you wanted Lafayel there for destroying the other eraser...It didn't occur to me you could have such a devious reason behind it." Mizuangi shrugged, smirking around his stub of cigarette. "I'm a practical man." he said simply. "And I know you _hate _those limp-wristed effeminate sorts." Kasei's lips narrowed and he said nothing for a long moment.

"...In such a battle, of course, assuming this _Israfel _caused Lafayel his state of pain, there would be little chance Lafayel would not be further injured..." Kasei added quietly, his eyes slitting. Mizunagi sighed, snuffing his stub of nicotine. "Nah. The reason Lafayel got fried was because he was busy fighting with your boyfriend's little Darklore buddy, and Israfel popped open the wings and knocked him one under the belt, so to speak." Ama-Inu reared with a bellow causing Kuga to jump. Fists the size of the other men's heads rose up in indignation.

"That _bastard_! Two against one like that's just _cheap_! An' he's so _small_-" Kasei blinked only once before his lips curled humorlessly, and he leaned comfortably over Ama-Inu. "I never knew you were so _fond _of Lafayel." Mizunagi smiled nastily. "Must be a demon thing." Ama-Inu's face blanched, then he lowered defensively. "'M not _fond_ of him. I don' even _like_ him. Stupid bird. 'S just _cheap_, tha'ss all." He sulked against his knees. "Don' like him at _all_...'M _hungry_." He grumbled as an afterthought. Kasei raised his head. "Kuga?" Kuga obediently went to the refrigerator to prepare something for Ama-Inu. "An' none'a that _tofu_ stuff." Ama-Inu added, muffled by his knees. "Certainly." Kuga replied with utter graciousness.

Quiet reigned a moment but for the mild clatter of pans as Kuga cleared a space to work, tying back his long hair.

"'S not fair." Ama-Inu grumbled after a moment into his knees. "Didn' hafta be _beaten_. Didn' hafta _lose_. S'just cheap. We could'a beaten them _all _if master-" Kasei yanked the tuft of hair behind his ear _hard_, and Ama-Inu grimaced. He didn't make a sound that time. He _knew_ that one was more than simply play, and when all was said and done, he had a decent enough pain tolerance. That had been a warning, a _real_ one.

Mizuangi grinned. "Careful." He added maliciously. "Your monk boy-toy doesn't want the bitch to bite you, _puppy_." Ama-Inu snapped his head upwards, muscles cording in his arms. "Don't _call_ me that." He growled. "Only _Kasei_ can call me that." Mizunagi shrugged. "Or what? You'll _kill _me, _puppy_?" Kasei cut over Ama-Inu before the demon could retort something very loud. His soft volume hadn't changed a whit. "Without being conscious of her powers, master may have inadvertantly lightened the restrictions between us. Including killing of fellow soldiers." He curled an arm over Ama-Inu's massive shoulders as though to calm him and at once hold him back, though he seemed no more conscious of the act than of brushing away a fly. "There's no need to rile him up, Mizunagi." Kuga added from the stove. "If you guys fight now, we'll only have to explain it to Master later...Things will only get harder for us." Kasei nodded wordlessly in agreement. Ama-Inu glowered, but let his arms be coaxed down.

"...Stupid psychic." He grumbled under his breath.

Mizunagi's lips curled nastily. "_Oh_ that's a bad dog. Heel." Ama-Inu's eyes bulged and he made to leap at the psychic, but Kasei grabbed him by the shirt and flung him over onto the stairs wih no real show of effort.

Kuga jumped at the thunderous crash behind him, turning with eyes wide. "K-Kasei!"

Kasei only looked at him coldly. Ama-Inu didn't make a noise, either in pain or injustice. Kuga was the first to look away, apparently embarassed. It was only then that Kasei turned to Mizunagi. The Arayashiki's black eyes were narrow. "Don't taunt him, Mizunagi." he said flatly, lightly as ever, though there was steel threat under his neutral tone. "He shouldn't overexert himself when he spends every night howling." Ama-Inu gave a strange, hoarse guffaw from his sprawled position over the stairs. He gingerly shifted himself, no doubt _battered_, but fortunately not _broken_. "That _hurt_, you bastard." he whispered at Kasei, unable to hide his fanged grin, licking the blood from his lip, and rubbing carefully at his bruised nose. Kasei gave him a faint nod. Acknowleging, nothing more. He didn't help him up. Ama-Inu said nothing more of the pain, or the mild injuries, and didn't seem to notice the lack of aid.

Mizunagi smiled down coldly, insincerely over both of them. "Well, they _do _say dog spit has healing properties..." He began. Kasei's voice cut over him, colder still. "Mizunagi, if you don't _wish _me to do something, you'll stop provoking him." He fixed him with a cold black eye. "Now." He added quietly.

Mizunagi didn't say anything more, fingering another cigarette thoughtfully, smiling. "...Kuga, you want me to bring down master? It looks like you're almost done." The psychich asked in apparent amusement. Kuga turned from the stove. "I'd like you to leave for a moment, yes." He said quietly, sad disapproval in his eyes.

Mizuangi smiled and nodded once, almost bowing, mocking in his eyes. "Fine. I'll get her." he said simply, lightly, coldly playful to the end. He tread lightly around Ama-Inu and Kasei, and ascended the stairs without ever a break in the smile that didn't reach past his lips.

-o-O-o-O-o-

-o-O-o-

Author's Notes:

I was going to have this be a part of one of the Control, or Gracious Wings side-story things, then I decided to make it different entirely. I still don't know exactly where I'm going with it. Half of it seems built off "Gluttony" considering the totally random KaseiXAma-Inu pairing vaguely within it, but other parts, including the weird probable-lesbian Kaoru (Nice to get that out in the open before this continues so you all know in advance), angsty-fatherly Kuga, and cruel-playful Mizuangi seem to have come off of some GW scenes I was writing for later. As I said, I don't know where it's going to go, but I like how it's turning out...though the psychic hunters tend to become a bit...altered under my pen. (That and my general "tone" for anything normal mixes the frightfully serious with the frivolously dark-humored. "Melodrama for the sake of laughing at it after" sort of thing.)

Anyway, let me know what you thought of this, mmkay? Might be an incentive to continue it, or devote brainspace to it...

Oh, and read chapter two. I have two chapters up so far, that's right. Let me know, though, all the same.

...Below, I've taken a section out of my "production notes" so if this dies, people know all my "background stuff" and can jump in more easily. (And even if this doesn't die...they can go ahead and use it as a springboard... oh the FUN!) I don't normally give people my "production notes" because they're often not easily explained. I mean...I'm writing notes to myself so I see and remember my ideas and reactions at the time, when I go through edits. Usually there's nothing really "salvageable" there, but this seems to be the exception because even I don't know if I'm going to finish this one, so...

Hope my tongue-in-cheek personal stuff amuses you. I haven't really cut anything out of it, I think... Reading it over, I guess I'm scattered by myself, and maybe not all the references will make sense, but...it might give some information, so I'm including it in all its strange reference-ridden, sardonic and self deprecating glory AT THE LINK BELOW ON MY LIVEJOURNAL.

If you can't get into livejournal and yearn to discover what is written, send me some sort of note, and I can email it to you, or whatever. Take out the spaces for the link. And if you want ot hang around a bit longer, I dont' care one way or the other. I keep the thing almost entirely public for a reason after all, though it's not often nearly so interesting...

**-o- OTHER NOTES FOR FUN (From my personal annotations--the once-in-a-lifetime look into the author's headspace!) -o-**

Just finished looking over the first two chapters of _Tabula Rasa..._ (that's the name for the Kaoru-stuff as of this minute. I think it works... "blank slate" and all. Oh the puns!)

My version of Kasei is especially weird. His voice here sounds more playful than the flat, matter-of-fact tone I have him saying it in, in my head... Flatten it all out and have him sort of murmur it, and there's my version of Kasei. Otherwise he sounds as nastily playful as Mizunagi, and that's not right at all. He doesn't really get a great deal of lines. The best you see of him is where he fights Itsuki in book four, and there's sort of a hint of something in his voice for once... That's basically all I've had to work on while redesigning and fleshing him out... Ugh. What a pain. I'm going to try to soften that a touch in the end. it shouldn't be too hard. And some of the vocab seems switchy still... But easily fixable stuff. Final draft, maybe... It still doesn't sound quite right. He's hard to fix, too. What a pain...

I also made him gay, which should be obvious to any reader. But hey, this is fanfictionDOTnet! Just about every character's gay here in _someone_'s mind. I've only got _two_ here. I'm allowed. One gay pairing? That's practically tame compared to some of that other stuff... And Ama-Inu's not _really_ gay like Kasei is. He's more a _gastrophile_, really, still, but he's kind of ambiguous and apathetic about that sort of thing, so he goes along with it. Just like _Gluttony_. Or...will that not come through? Ugh. One bad note about the pairing is all the second-guessing. First time I actually take a serious liking to a crack-pairing and I have to be the pioneer? Teh suck. Stupid canon. I have about nothing to work with. Kasei's personality could be just about anything, realistically speaking... Basically I decided Kasei and Ama-Inu are almost the same here as they are in _Gluttony_, just actually getting along, and I changed Ama-Inu's eyes. That was more recent. (Gerbils. Who would have thought I'd get such a break from _gerbils_? I'd better not mention that in the end--it's probably too embarassing...)

Ama-Inu...well...he's about the same as he is in the canon except slightly more slurred when I write him. It seemed to work as his voice, even though I feel a little guilty. (And it's hard ot keep consistant. It seems to change as he eats different things. Weirdness.) For the first and last time, though, I must reassure myself that Ama-Inu is not Loz. I love Loz and all, but it really doesn't work. You don't catch Ama-Inu sobbing about his mom and beating up leather-clad girls with massive cleavage that would crush them flat if gravity weren't suspended in the universe for the making of the film... Why do I still keep wanting to stick him next to Yazoo and Kadaj though? This is all MOG's fault... Better not tell her or I'll get a crossover fic blamed on me again and she'll probably impregnate someone. --unwanted mental images much? Note to self: stop watching mindless action movies like _Advent Children_, and read more books in the future. Stay inside. Be more introverted. Be a slob. Make omlettes. Oh crap, why can't I think about omlettes without thinking "Hamlet"? Note to self again: write down more quotes from Foolish Mortal and give her a hug out of nowhere for being such a terrible influence.

"Ama-Inu" means "sea dog" apparently, hence "puppy." (Thank YOU KS-sama for looking up japanese stuff for the incompetants here...) Uh huh. Now I get to try to tell the world how this is _not_ me stealing off the wonderful "werewolf" story theme running around. Ama-Inu's normal "human" except he's demon with me. Somehow this is invariably going to lead to "werewolf?" from a reviewer. I can feel it in my water. ...More power to the werewolf writers, though. I can't wait for that next chapter to come out on the Ama-Inu centered fic... (I might have to investigate that idea someday...) The Kasei thing might count as a "plot twist which may save my sorry posterior from similarity comments" since how many people really want to take the credit for such a crazy idea? Not many. ...KaseiXAma-Inu...YAY. I _wanted_ to do more with that random pairing and now I get the chance! Reminds me...I ought to tell Fyredra and maybe get up that _Good Omens_ fic while I'm at it. Dual-weilding the "fangirl mode" should be a feat in fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons...

I'm fortunately, still not a particularly graphic person, so the world is probably not going to have to deal with anything distasteful and filled with bad euphemisms for portions of the body and what goes where. It's a breath of relief to reach my nineteeth birthday and still not be a smut-breather. Yay Kasei and Ama-Inu for keeping me sane... (Who wants kinky demon slash anyway? And the height thing would be a pain to figure out anyway--no reference. I mean, it was much easier to just hang around 6 foot 3 inch tall guys and compare for Tsukasa and Tomonori, but where would I find the seven-foot-tall guy? And Kasei's taller than me. No, it's easier not to get into mechanics there... Once again, general laziness for details, and squeamishness for slash prevails over my otaku nature.)

Uh huh. Right. The "puppy" thing again... Trust Kasei in all his matter-of-fact sadism to call a seven-foot-tall psychopath demon something diminuitive like "puppy." They can really be kind of nasty and fun together at the same time, which is why I like them so...My first _real_, and _sticking_ crack-pairing... I've made it _work_ off basically nothing because I didn't want MizunagiXLafayel. (Sort of exhausted any of the mild possibilities there. I'd like to use Lafayel's potential elsewhere for once. The pieces with him paired off with one of the other two erasers have sort of grown on me. Maybe I can work that in? Much different from the GW stuff at any rate--got to try to remember that. It's kind of hard with Lafayel...) Kasei and Ama-Inu are both not really _nice_, but they kind of leech something off eachother, and that softens some of the edges. But they're still pretty rough. Great stuff. (Yay! My violence fetish!) The "puppy" thing still occasionally gives me twitches. I mean...it's a bit cliche as a pet-name (har har Pundemonium.) but...well...I suppose I can suck it up and compensate with sheer awesomeness everywhere else?

...Fortunately, this all allows me to make Mizunagi heterosexual, which most fangirls don't seem to believe in. (Woo!) Funny stuff. Sexuality doesn't come up unless pairings are involved with most fics, and then, people are made gay to fit into someone's head-fantasy of them snogging someone else. Not so _here_. I _like _having Mizu the way he is. He doesn't have to _get_ anything, but he can just be there. The fic so far has him sort of lightly tease Kasei in such a way that Kasei sees him as harmless. Kasei might be a little attracted to him, even, but he's knows it wouldn't go anywhere. But they still have an interesting chemistry... (There was that one MizunagiXKasei fic someplace back in the old days, wasn't there? Maybe I should dig it out of the fic-collection folder...) It still adds a little tension because Ama-Inu can get jealous. He's actually pretty possessive of Kasei. Kasei treats him like dirt, and he actually likes it. It's hysterical to me for some odd reason. Deliciously convoluted. (This is the point where Kuga comes in and cries, "Hell is other people!" Poor guy. He's too normal for the group, almost. Why do I find _that_ perfect?)

...Kasei X Itsuki. That needs to go up on my crackpairings list. Word. Next to that freaky Tracer X Itsuki business for _Wrath_. Brain? You scare me.

Kuga...well... He's turned out nicely. I had insight for his reaction to Kaoru as sort of a foil to Mizunagi's the way _I _made Mizu. Mizu's more his GW sort of self except without the eraser background, or really, the strong ties to his faction. (Which has to go since Itsuki professes to be "the only male kin of my generation", either one has to make separate families to compensate, or one has to make VERY few men in the faction in general. This time I'm going with the second choice. GW uses the first.) Mizu likes _strong_, domineering women and so sees Kaoru as a great sort of woman all around, though he's the one who really knows for sure that she...well...probably likes girls. He wouldn't make a move because she's his master, and as far as he's concerned, the woman makes the move. (So glad I looked at Kuga after tightening that _Wrath_ Tracer-POV. Good stuff.) Kaoru doesn't even spare him a glance. (She's sort of borderline at best with that whole Mana-centric business of hers. I'm still working out what I'd do with Kaoru. She's quite interesting material now that I've tackled some other difficult ones... Femmeslash? Do I dare write my first femmeslash piece?) Kaoru's a bit young for Mizunagi anyway...And I wouldn't torture poor Kuga that way. (I'd also probably get brick'd... So...)

Shame I can't do End of Chapter Parody since both chapters are coming up...

Kaoru: I'm just here for the porn.

Mizunagi: (bemused) _Great _thing to be here for. Read this one?

Kaoru: _Luscious Lolitas?_ (frown) I don't think so.

Mizuangi: (grin) Great place to start. (waves it teasingly) _And _it's half catalogue.

Kaoru: GIMMIE.

Mizuangi: (laughs as Kaoru claws her way through the magazine)

Kaoru: (gasp) I want _that_!

Mizunagi: That? (whistles) Sweet Pea, can you imagine the look on dear Kuga's face if you even tried to ask for it?

Kaoru: ... (slumps)

Mizunagi: (gives it a second look and nods approvingly) Good taste, though...

Kaoru: ...

Mizunagi: ...And it's a cute dress she's almost got on, too.

Kaoru: I think that's a boy.

Mizunagi: What's with the scars on the back? Now that I have to wonder at.

Lafayel: (wanders through and does a double take at the picture) Holy crap! ISRAFEL!

Mizunagi: Well that explains alot...

Kaoru: I want a different magazine now.

Jokes aside..."sweet pea" has potential for a Mizu-pet-name... (an _Ororon_ reference? Am I serious? I wonder if anyone will notice...)

Kuga turned out nicely against Mizunagi. He wants to protect Kaoru, _nurture _her. She really _is_ his little girl deep down. (At least relationally speaking. He has such pure intentions...Why do I want to call him "Riff"? I wonder... Does that make Kaoru "Jizabel" because of the hair? Must stop reading manga before writing fanfiction or I'll end up with another one of those "recasts" like the _Loveless_ joke with Mentu-rin...) ...Poor Kuga. He can't stand to see Kaoru remember because it might cause her pain. I thought it was a great deal nicer than the romantic pairing of the two of them. It allows Kuga to be what he is, and still care a great deal. (He's also a bit of a foil for Tomonori in that he _does_ actually have a fatherly relationship with Kaoru, versus Tomonori's really twisted up thing with Tsukasa a la _Control_... I get my kicks in strange ways.) --Another problem with fanfiction: people often forget there are some relationships in the world _not_ forged either by the sunflower-cloak-power of friendship, the frightful vase of romantic angst ('tis not a vase--it's an ash-pot for funerary purposes. Farewell years of my life spent slaving over _Control_! Stay in the vase, demon!), _or_ those ghastly ties of sibling affection and loyalty... (_So_ not the time or place to think "_Angel Sanctuary"_... Blech. Go figure, the series ends and I still can't stand Setsuna and Sara...)

It's funny that parental relationships or even _adoptive_ parent relationships are often not well done in fanfics. Probably because most of us on the interweb (Thank you XKCD! I _will _write about this on my blag!) are teenagers and we really can't tell a good or bad thing when we see it on that front. (Myself included.) Perhaps having him see her as a child makes him hurt all the more when she does things he doesn't want her to. (That sounds like a good dynamic to follow--FUTURE NOTE) He's too permissive as parents go, and for that he suffers--having the utmost good intentions, but unable to discipline. How perfect. Kaoru's _real_ parents ignored and verbally abused her at the least from what we know in the canon. Kuga represents the other end of the spectrum. It's _because _he spoils her and cares for her, in a way, that she can go so utterly bad in the first place. That seems to follow canon _and_ let me preserve Kuga's basic "goodness." (He has a sort of purity to his character that really appeals to me in a strange way now that I've started putting him in. He has a bit of potential there. The ineffective good guy? I like those. Dang I need to find a way to put in Shiba! I haven't worked with him since that fragment with Tracer, Tokiko, and Gabriel! And that never left the ground! I miss Shiba! Why can I never write anything with him in it? Add "Shiba X Kasei" and "Shiba X Mizunagi" to the list...)

Before I forget to hit everyone, Lafayel amuses me incessantly, and I find him to be great inspiration and nasty driving force for _many _fics. Thus far, I don't have much planned for him fic-wise. He's just mentioned there because he seems like a problem they'd be discussing--conversational realism, as it were. I might not even use him. I mean...I use him for so much else...

"Girlfriend" is going to be the bit where someone points a finger someplace. God I hope that doesn't happen. The "girlfriend" thing is just Mizunagi being teasing as far as I know, though. Mizunagi's hetero, so naturally, he puts in the word "girlfriend" rather than "boyfriend" or "birdyfriend." (I'm considering all possibilities, though... Something tells me this version of Lafayel would make an especially crappy boyfriend. Must be why I want to write it so bad... (cracks up)) I'm _not_ looking forward to the possible collateral in reviews since most people probably know I like Lafayel and are bound to misinterpret that, but the joke...? I think it might be worth it if I build on it. Humor possibilities shouldn't be neglected...

Heh, my backstory if anyone asks: Ama-Inu and Kasei had a bet going as to whether Lafayel was gay or not what with the outfit. Ama-Inu's screeching because he was betting that Lafayel didn't care. (Obviously, Kasei was betting he was gay.) Technically both of them lost the bet. Maybe I'll use it for plot later...?

Lafayel and Mizunagi had a rather prickly almost-friendship going for them. I notice now that _my_ version of Lafayel has changed quite a bit from where I started with _Atlanta's Apples_. Now he's no longer _quite_ the petulant, screeching brat he was, so I'm pretty happy about that. That's working really well for _Gracious Wings_ especially, where I finally have interactions between them which feel neither stilted nor unnatural-and-OOC. They've come a long way. Sort of a discreet tip of the hat where I can put it. A happy milestone... Yay, Lafayel is finally useful and more than just a fun sideshow. Yay! Now I can actually set him aside. (Funny how that works isn't it?)

All in all...just some dialogue things to fix? Those always seem harder when I start putting in dialects and interpreted dialects into characters. Especially if there's little canon basis. (sigh) Oh well. What's done is done. I'll probably get used to Kasei and Ama-Inu's ways of phrasing things with a little practice. Time to go back in... And I'd better remember those other ideas. Possibly a chapter three there or onwards? I need all those I can get...

-o- END OF AUTHOR'S BRAIN-PICKING SESSION -o-

Some of the other finer points of interactions are easier to point out or see in the next chapter. (which I have for sure.) So I'll point them out there.

Mind you, I'm putting all this up, not because I'm trying to dumb down things for the world in an entertaining manner, but I'm trying to show some of the process or the 'feel" of slightly unspoken character traits just in case this dies, so people will find it easier to jump into if they want. Call it the "Neufe challenge" and take it where you will! Or, retranslate your _own_ fanon of bad-guy characters! It's great fun!

See you all in chapter two!

-Neufe


	2. II: Electromagnetics

Ouoo. It has a second chapter. How thrilling. The ongoing following of the fishes...

**My little lists of warnings: Mizunagi's being innuendo-laden, and Ama-Inu and Kasei have some really weird discussion habits. Not to mention Kaoru's possible magazines (Er. What?)...Still almost disturbingly clean compared to my usual fare, just with the little dark edges still on... (I ask you: Who else warns you of possible magazines? ...Whatever **_**that **_**means...)**

Also, there are (almost) no fishes in this chapter. Guaranteed. Just a little sushi. (Huzzah for yellowtail.)

Note conspicuous lack of disclaimer in ongoing support of critical thinking skills and Nodjmet-san, both:

_"Would you like me to make some pigeons?" --Dream of the Endless, in conversation with Death_

Hark. I am a fascinating person with great tastes in graphic novel, though not in pets.

(To answer the semi-related question before it comes: My favorite is actually Despair, but _she _doesn't get the great lines. And my pets are cockroaches. American cockroaches. Largest indoor pest in North America. About the size of my thumb, the adult ones. Nice pets, though not exactly cuddly. And in semi-plentiful supply indoors during the rainy season.)

-o-O-o-O-o-

**Tabula Rasa (n)**

_1. (In Philosophy) __**the mind prior to experiences: **_

_the mind at birth, regarded as having no innate conceptions_

_2. __**Chance to start afresh:**__ an opportunity to make a clean break or a fresh start_

_(Mid-16th century from the Latin _

_meaning literally "scraped table" or "blank slate")_

-o-O-o-O-o-

-**II: Electromagnetics**-

-o-O-o-

Mizunagi rapped his knuckles against the closed door. He could make out dim strains of music within.

A muffled female voice wafted through the door louder than the garbled lyrics, "Who is it?"

Mizunagi blinked then smirked. "It's just me, Sweet Pea. Mind opening up?" A pause, then the door opened a crack to reveal a luminous eye.

The rings in her irises were dark against the foreigner-pale aquaeous color--such that her eyes appeared striped like the rings in a cut-down tree stump. She blinked, her tiny mouth pointing its darkened lips downward. Mizunagi beamed coldy but nonetheless almost amiably down at her. If the soldiers of a mindbreaker appeared before Kaoru's eyes as points of brilliance in the old days, Mizunagi would have been a light, yes, but an electric light--brilliant but with an utter lack of warmth.

"Something you're hiding?" Mizunagi asked almost innocently. The crack in the doorway narrowed. "No." Kaoru's voice was flat, defensive. "I wanted to sleep." She added in that same guarded and very deliberate, almost _ominous_ tone she had. Mizunagi's eyes glittered. "Ah. Sleep. Yes. Magazines are good for sleep. Something more interesting than the _Gothic and Lolita Bible_ this time?"

Kaoru was very quiet and the crack in the open door narrowed further, striped eye looking out suspiciously.

"Don't worry. I won't say a word to Kuga."

The door seemed to consider this, then opened quietly. Kaoru's lacy, petticoated black skirt was rumpled, and her eyes were rimmed in red. "You're making fun of me. _Stop_ it." Kaoru muttered. Mizunagi's lips parted and he grinned, putting a hand to her head, the rumpled, flaxen curls slightly cool against his fingertips. "Don't be so worried. Porn's perfectly normal at your age. And I make fun of everyone, but I'd stop any time you'd like. You only have to ask." he said quietly, with his cold smile.

There was a faint tremor on his powers, the uncertainty of a tiny child handling a violin for the first time, a graceless fumbling on the strings, nothing like the sensation of being handled by his master's mind before... Then it stopped. All through it, his smile gave no tremor, no indication he'd even noticed.

How dull. How _boring _it all was. Weak women weren't his thing, that much was sure. He almost wanted to flood back at her with his psychic powers and try to reconnect the bond himself, but he certainly couldn't do that with the rest of the group so fearful. They _would_ kill him for it.

What a pain. What a boring pain...

Kaoru peered up at him with that hostile, sullen suspicion of hers, then pushed away his hand. "What did you want, Mizunagi?" Mizunagi curled his lips into a smile, and raised his palms upwards. "There's no need to treat me so nastily, doll." Kaoru's eyes snapped up angrily. "Don't _call_ me that. I'll never be a doll!" Mizuangi smiled through it all. "Oh. Sorry." He bent his knees slightly, resting his hands on them, more on the girl's level now. "Just such a pretty little woman, with such shiny golden hair and pretty little cheeks. I must've forgotten myself there." Kaoru's face twisted. "Stay _back_, Mizunagi. I'll tell..." She paused. "Kuga." Mizunagi grinned. He wondered dimly if the word, the name had a sense of rightness on her lips now. Remembering _indeed_. Not 'father' but 'Kuga'...

"_Kuga_ wouldn't stop me. But I wouldn't do a thing to you, you know." He looked at her. "You're invincible, princess." Kaoru's face twisted and again, he felt a faint flicker as some part of her seemed to recall for an instant, and pick up all the strings, then...again the feeling faltered.

"Your words are _worthless_." She muttered with a scowl. "You're a liar, Mizunagi." Mizunagi's teeth flashed. "Oh certainly, but I'd never lie to _you_. You'd see right through me. You can trust me--I wouldn't _dream_ of doing anything to you. And there's no harm in telling a woman she's pretty so long as its true and it doesn't go to her head." He peered at her with that unsettling, insidious smile of his. "Besides, I know well that you don't sleep with music on, princess." Kaoru's face twisted again. "Don't call me _that_ either. It's..._wrong_." She hissed.

Mizunagi's eyes glittered. "Wrong?" he repeated with utter innocence wafting through his voice. Kaoru's brows knitted. "...Your words are worthless...and confusing." She muttered. "That's most ingracious of you." He replied with bemusement written in his lilting voice. "We all live for _you_ in this house." Kaoru scowled at him. "You're giving me a _headache_."

"Cup of tea will take care of that, Sweet Pea. Kuga will have some ready quite soon in fact, if I am to be any judge." He proffered a hand. "Care to join us?"

Kaoru glowered at him. "...I want to talk to Father. I _don't_ want to talk to you." She grumbled, massaging a temple with black-nailed fingertips. Mizunagi's teeth flashed. "You can do whatever you wish when you join us."

Kaoru looked at his offered hand, then scoffed, skirts swishing. "You make it sound as though I have no choice. I do what I please, Mizunagi."

"Don't you always..." He whispered bemusedly, and inaudibly.

Mizunagi watched her go, and grinned to himself before following her down.

If an average soldier was a light, then there was something to be said about the effect of that irresistably attractive force of magnetic charge upon your basic, everyday luminous mote. Photons were, after all, the energy that drove a molecule to movement and reaction.

But the difference was, Energy was neither created nor destroyed, and soldiers were not so fortunate.

She couldn't keep them captive forever and still expect the strength to move, and react, and _exist_.

-o-O-o-

Kuga noticed Kaoru's arrival so quickly it was almost sad. His eyes lit up. "Kaoru..." He looked at the pan in his hands. "Are you...hungry?" Kaoru frowned at him a moment, then glared back up at Mizunagi at the top of the stairs. "He didn't mention you were _eating_." Mizunagi grinned brazenly, eyes glittering. "The witty banter betwen us caused it to quite slip my mind." Kuga sighed. "He's been difficult all day. Pay him no mind."

"Even if she ignored me, she'd never leave _my_ mind, Kuga." Mizunagi added with his heatless smile. Both Kuga and Ama-Inu tensed at that. Kasei ignored him. Kaoru gave Mizunagi such a look of annoyance that flowers would have withered, but...she didn't have her power any longer...a glare was simply a glare.

Kasei bowed his head formally. "Do ignore him. Welcome." He said softly, tonelessly.

She nodded back. Her eyes slipped to Ama-Inu. She frowned. "What happened to _you_?"

The massive man looked up, a cut of raw yellowtail halfway to his mouth. His lip twitched, exposing a fang. He scratched his matted hair. "...Sorta' slipped. Onna stairs." Kasei sipped his tea. "My fault, I'm afraid." He added quietly.

Kaoru looked at him. "_What _exactly did you do?"

Memory or not, age gaps and gender regardless, her voice was nothing less than imperious and commanding. It _dictated_ obedience...

Kasei sipped at his tea again, and added without a change in his almost insubstantial flatness. "Arm wrestling."

But...the command no longer had a _sting_ behind it, just as the striped eyes seemed to have lost a bit of their ferocity...

Ama-Inu's bruised and purpling nose twitched. "_Tackle_ Arm Wrestling." He added in a growl. Kasei sipped, eyes shut, face serene. Kuga stared at them both, rather pale. The lie was so absurd that clearly his mind was formulating exactly what was the worst Kaoru could ask out of it. Mizunagi slipped beside her and with an easy smile added, "Aren't they funny? It's not actually fit for a lady's ears. He deserved it, though, believe me." Kuga actually groaned and Kaoru looked at him strangely. Mizunagi wasn't helping matters at all, and he knew it. Ama-Inu scowled at him around his fish. "Shut yor yap."

Kaoru actually glared at him. "I'm _not_ some sheltered little _doll_. I already _know_." She glowered at Mizunagi savagely. "And how would _you_ know what's fit for my ears? Don't make me laugh. I already _know_ about _them_." The flippancy, the coldness of the statement made Kuga pale all the more terribly. Kasei actually lowered his tea. "Them?" He spoke simply.

"Why yes, whatever _are_ you thinking of, sweet pea? The mind of a woman is both terrible and wonderful..." Mizunagi sighed almost dreamily, his smirk absolutely terrifying. Kaoru glared at him. "_Shut up_." She snapped.

Mizunagi's black eyes danced to her again, and he smiled, his maddening smile, never mind the fact that two of the other men present were sending him threats via the eyes--or at least trying to... Kasei was sipping his tea. His shoulder was bare of ink as though he had no care at all in the world.

Kuga placed a hand carefully on Kaoru's back. "He's...He's _really_ been like this all day. You don't need to listen to him. I can't think of anything that might cause him to behave like this." He sighed almost helplessly. Kaoru only glared at him. "I don't _care_. He can shut up. I know _all_ about _those_ two, anyway. I always _have_."

Nobody dared to ask, _'How?'_ Kaoru wouldn't have been able to answer, and would have been angry, certainly, but worse still, they all _knew_, though she didn't. She was their master. But still, it was terrible on some level to hear a memory-free young woman could still have so much raw, uncontrolled insight. "I know all about them. So shut up." Kaoru added, glaring at Mizunagi, who gave another slient, congenial, maddening smile.

Kasei raised his eyebrows and lowered his dish of tea. His voice was mild, pleasantly questioning. "Do you really?" He murmured in his own little way, just barely above a whisper, but somehow more devastating than a shriek. "I wonder..." he whispered.

Kaoru looked at him, then her face flushed, and she stood, shoving aside the seat.

"K-Kaoru-!" Kuga exclaimed, hand out to stop her. She shoved it away--a child in a tantrum.

"I'm not _hungry_. I'm not going to sit with all of you if you'll just sit here and _mock_ me!" Kaoru shouted, storming back up the stairs.

Her door slammed shut with a final creak, and all was silent.

Kuga stood there, hand still outstretched, staring at the staircase with a look of utter unhappiness. "..._Why _did you do that?" He whispered in a near-moan. Ama-Inu, despite his basic blamelessness in the whole thing, was the only one to really look down guiltily. One could sooner outstare a snake than outstare either Mizunagi or Kasei.

Kasei calmly picked up his dish of tea, blowing on it dreamily. "She doesn't remember. Until she remembers, she knows nothing of me." Kuga turned on him with a look of exasperated anguish. "You didn't have to _press_ that on her-" Kasei's eyes fixed on him, cutting him off as effectively as a knife to the throat. He lowered his teacup with a _thud_, scalding tea sloshing over his fingers, but he didn't notice. "She knows _nothing_ of me. She could sit in voyeuristic background, and watch me in my every act and still know nothing of me." Ama-Inu was tensed, staring at Kasei's fingers. "Until she remembers _calling_ me, and knows how to do so again, she knows nothing of me." Kasei added frostily, his black eyes hard. "No pressing of motives required. I _have _no motives. I have no need to care. Until she remembers, she is nothing to me, and I am nothing."

Mizunagi grinned. "Nothing to her, you mean. Nothing to _her_."

Kasei looked at him, "No." He said flatly. "I said exactly what I meant to say."

Kuga's hands trembled, and Mizunagi could see outrage in the man's eyes mingled with concern. The two seemed to be battling. As ever, Kuga would be caught still deciding whether to be angry, or comfort the man. Kasei left before the other could rally words. He had no patience for Kuga's waffling.

Ama-Inu looked gloomily at his food while the swordsman rose from his seat without another word and vanished into the house.

The demon met Kuga's eyes after a long moment, and answered the question there almost thoughtfully. "...You pissed him off." He said simply.

Kuga sighed, and the anger left his body in a cloud of remorse. Kuga really was too soft of a person, Mizunagi noted. His quietness hid that--always the first to apologize, and the first to give in. No backbone at all. Kaoru, even thinking she was his daughter, had no more respect for him than a queen had for a servant. "...I don't think he'll let me apologize." Kuga said in a sigh. "I still don't...agree with him, but I really didn't mean to upset him." The man looked down. "This must be hard for him...Deep down...he has the same fatal bond to her...that...can't be cut." He glanced at Mizunagi, who nodded in affirming, keeping his own thoughts of how pitiful the man was, how _easily_ he came up with an excuse to make Kasei more human. How easily he tried to empathize and ended up always thinking his companions were more _human_, more _gentle_.

Like _he_ was.

...Kuga was no soldier. He never would be. He too readily made soldiers into humans again.

"You only get _one_ master." Mizunagi agreed in reply. That seemed to hearten Kuga. How pitiful he was...

Ama-Inu shrugged. "He'll be pissed for a while. Gotta let him be by himself then." Mizunagi grinned. "By himself? Not even with you?" Ama-Inu scratched his head, and opened his mouth to reply, then shut it, thinking for another moment before answering, with what seemed, unusual tact, uncertainty... "He doesn't...act _right _when he feels like that. It's...sorta not right to come in on him. I jus' leave him alone." Mizunagi pressed it. "So what? He can cry and think he's a horrible person? Beat on the mirror? Hate himself for all of it?" Ama-Inu looked at him, and scowled, gulping down another strip of yellowtail. "Tha'ss his business. None f'_yours_. I _get_ him. Understan' n' stuff. Don' need to explain it. He'd wanna be alone." He scratched his head. "Wouldn' wanna be _seen_ like that." Mizunagi's lip curled. "Seen? Showing emotion?" He pressed in a sickly saccharine tone.

The demon glared, and revealed a lethal yellow fang. "_No_. None 'f your business anyway. Kasei's not like that."

"Then what don't you want to see?" Kuga asked quietly, worry in his eyes.

Ama-Inu stopped, wiping his mouth. He seemed to think for a moment before he replied. "...Him bein' _nothing_." He said finally.

Kuga looked to Mizunagi, then sighed, shaking his head almost irritably. Clearly he couldn't make sense of that statement. "I'm going to go speak to master...Ama-Inu...if...Kasei feels better later, please tell him, I'm sorry." Ama-Inu gave a grunt and a nod. "Pro'lly not _you_. He's jus' _like_ that. M' gonna tell him anyway, though..."

Mizunagi didn't move, only smiled, like a strangely malevolent, statue but for the movement of cigarette to lips, and the flow of smoke gushing from the end. Even when Ama-Inu stood and lumbered off after Kasei, he didn't move, only sat and _smiled_.

_Particles in motion, tend to stay in motion_.

And to cease that motion...was all but destructive trauma to a particle, even the coldest and most rigid.

-o-O-o-

The instant the door opened a blur of motion armed with a sword hurled itself at the intruder, but Ama-Inu was already ready, barelling him aside with a swipe of a brutish hand, sending the much frailer man stumbling. His massive fingers picked the sword out pf the other's fingers like it was a toothpick. Kasei didn't move, made no effort to defend himself when the much larger man pinned him, hands over his wrists, making them look tiny, inconsequential. Ama-Inu stared at him for a few moments. Kasei didn't even look at him, face blank, dull, perhaps even pretty. He seemed without will to even make the slightest show of struggle or life.

Ama-Inu looked at him, blinking his dark ruby eyes. "...You okay?" He muttered finally in his gruff, low voice, stinking breath on Kasei's face.

Kasei said nothing, face still turned away. His black eyes were fixed on the wall, unblinking.

"_Fight_ with me." Ama-Inu growled, gripping his wrists. "Stop being stupid and sissy. Kuga said he's sorry."

Kasei finally made a faint noise that could have been a single, ironic laugh, and spoke, his tones monotonous. "Kuga wasn't the one I took issue with, as you well know." Kuga didn't have the heart to insult anyone. He meant well, in a quiet, and rather simple way. He was boring, and nondescript, only differentiated in his quiet tenderness. They both knew it. They _all_ knew it. Kuga lived in his own world, thinking all people were basically good, and tender as well, at their cores. It was hard to take issue with a man like that...

Ama-Inu shrugged in annoyance. "So what? Why'd y'even care? He's sorry. Means he wants y' to feel better an' stuff." Kasei's eyes suddenly narrowed, and his face contorted in unusual anger. "I am _emptied_." He snarled, fingers curling into fists, head tilted to the side still. Ama-Inu snorted. "So? I'm empty an' stuff, too. Jus' some stupid _stray_. You an' me? We both did that. Bein' hungry..." Kasei's laugh was cold, mirthless and high. "The emptiness that surpasses _physical _hungers, Ama-Inu. I want to be used..._brutalized_, torn, flung out like a piece of meat and nothing else." There was an almost painful, wistful, _angry _edge to Kasei's faint voice. "She is nothing to me...and I am _nothing_. I am sick of all of this...sick to death... I have no _use_."

Ama-Inu frowned faintly. "_Fight_ with me." He repeated in a more urging growl. Kasei's lips played a terrifying smile. "...Is that an offer?" Ama-Inu only looked at him blearily. "_Fight_ with me!" He bellowed "If y'_beat_ me..." He paused and shrugged. "Feels weird, really, so I don't wanna lose. Sofight with me." Kasei's eyes brightened, and he nodded, the strange curve of a grin to his lips. "When I beat you, then you'll...dominate me? Is that your atempt at consolation to me, Ama-Inu?" Ama-Inu shrugged, a fang biting into a lip. "I don't wanna lose." he repeated. "I'll do whatever." he said with a hint of reluctance. "Isn't really right, though, I mean...it's _you_. Shouldn't hafta bitch for _me_..." Kasei's lips twitched a mite higher.

Though he'd never say it, that was the exact reason Ama-Inu appealed to him--one person who wasn't interested in _using_ him but still was interested. He didn't really quite understand why, or even really care about the particulars--whether it was something like love, or lust, or boredom, or whatever. It made no difference to him. Something about that reluctance, or that amibivalence for him made the demon an appealling choice to him. And he wanted to be _used_ suddenly--that compusion he had, the hateful compulsion when he felt the inadvertant rejection of his unremembering master. He had a compulsion, a dreadful lust to feel a man use him again. Just to feel _something_...

...To forget that without his master, he had no purpose at all. Nothing to make him do _anything_...

Ama-Inu's staring ruby eyes were on him he could _feel _the dumb almost-animal look. He didn't rise to meet it, but he _felt_ it nonetheless, felt the heat of the other's body close to him, smelled his stinking breath, and grimy skin. One man, one _demon _who could tear any of the men who'd _ever_ had him to pieces. Somehow using _him_ to fulfill those urges had a neatness, a pleasance to it, a fitting sort of vengeance. The mastery and subduing of all forces of might...

He'd won before--it was rare, but he'd won before... Ama-Inu was powerful, and ruthless in pressing his advantages, but hardly innovative and prone to stopping for a good gloat...

"And that is your..._reason_ you give to me?" Ama-Inu shrugged, letting go of his hands. He peered down dumbly at Kasei. "Don' want y' to act all _weird_. That's all." Kasei's lips curled into a smile and his hands twisted in Ama-Inu's matted hair, bringing his head close enough to whisper in his ear. Ama-Inu grinned, and the roughness of a patch of stubble on his cheek grated like sandpaper on Kasei's skin. "Come on. _Fight_ with me!"

"Alright... I'll _play_, puppy." Kasei whispered, lips against an ear, just as he planted both palms on the demon's chest and shoved him ruthlessly, leaping for his sword, tattoo flickering to life on his shoulder.

-o-O-o-O-o-

**Chapter notes:**

Kaoru's angry-girl-spoiled-child-edge really came through well in this I think. I was terribly pleased. And Mizunagi's being especially deviously playful here in his stir-the-pot way. (He's starting to sound like a mean sort of Tracer, though, which I hope to kind of tap down later.)

Kasei and Ama-Inu are weird together--kind of violent and kinky more than fluffy and tender. They're both pretty hard-edged characters after all...

Kasei's background as I see it pretty much gets filled in more or less effectively via mention in both _Gluttony_ and _Wrath_. I gave him a pretty rough life--the brutal edges of his character are irreversably affected by that. There's no way about it. He's more fun that way.

I also liked making Ama-Inu kind of socially clumsy but still sort of discreet nonetheless. "I can't go back to master like this" pretty much inspired that. He seems to have a funny sort of pride which totally works out in compliment with Kasei's reclusive emptiness. He sort of gets it that you can't go in and just sit down like girls--sorry. I know. I _am_ one, remember?--and talk it out. Sometimes you just leave people alone. Other times, you give them something to hit, or some way to deal with it without that whole 'express your feelings' business. And you don't ask for explanations, you're just there as a means to deal with it. And that's that. In some ways, that makes him pretty awesome. He doesn't ask what Kasei's feeling. He doesn't worry about him. He just gives him a way to deal with it, keeps him moving...

I also think I've somewhat discreetly, but effectively messed up most of that seme-uke "positions" thing with this too, which gives me a kind of devious pleasure... (bwahahaaa! Convert, ye uncreative--no matter how much I befriend some of you--yaoi fangirls!)

Kuga's obviously going to go off to talk to Kaoru next chapter. That much I'm sure of. (This is going well..._unusually_ well.)

The way all Kaoru's soldiers relate to her...I wanted to make that different for different people. So you can have Mizunagi, who's used to having women in charge and never showing all his cards, and you can have Kuga who's strangely optimistic about the good in everyone but has no backbone to stand up and make things right, and you can have Kasei who's messed up and "empty" and wants to be filled without getting too close to anyone, and Ama-Inu, who's basically bored and violent and wants home and food, and people around him as a sort of atmosphere, and you can have her mean different things to all of them. And then take away her influence so they're all...missing something. And who's boss in a house where none of those people being "guided"? Fun stuff. Really fun to write, too--try to write it so effectively that it becomes "real" to people...

And now I'm as disconnected as my seven-foot-tall demon. (heh.)

If you don't know what I'm referencing with the "electromagnetics" theme here, you need to take a science class, yo. There's just no way around it. I think fourth graders with a mild background in particle physics could get it. (Florida is not known for its education system might I add, so there are very few fourth graders with a background in particle physics.)

Please leave me feedback. It always helps to know what stands out and what people like or dislike in a piece I work on--the best way to get better at everything. And _fast_, too.

See you in chapter three. Let's keep this going!


	3. III: Kinētikos

Yay! It's going! It's going! My brain is going again!

...I guess most people don't have celebratory exclaimations of any sort about the movements of their private headmeats, but there you go...

Because my brain is going, there is a third chapter of _Tabula Rasa_. (And I'm also fixing the blasted summary thing. Argh. It seems like the summary pages for these things just get shorter and shorter every year... I feel so old, but YOU write fanfiction under various names for six years and see what becomes of you...)

I've also fixed up and altered the first two chapters which...I usually promise myself not to do, because I know myself, and I know I'll get stuck making things "better" forever and ever. But...I did it. (And not to mention, it was kind of necessary so things went more smoothly later.) I think _Tabula Rasa_ is gaining a pseudo-epic status. It's going to be an ongoing project. (By which I mean, I have a basic storyline now, so it's morphed past just being an idea.)

So all aboard, kiddies. This wagon-train is just starting up.

Battle systems engage, and where the _heck _is my sacrifice, anyway?

_Yet another conspicuous lack of disclaimer brought to you by Neufe:_

_"...So I woke up one day and asked myself, 'Why's my tarot pack suddenly all shoujo?'"_

_--Frank-Yoh_

-o-O-o-O-o-

**Tabula Rasa (n)**

_1. (In Philosophy) __**the mind prior to experiences: **_

_the mind at birth, regarded as having no innate conceptions_

_2. __**Chance to start afresh:**__ an opportunity to make a clean break or a fresh start_

_(Mid-16th century from the Latin _

_meaning literally "scraped table" or "blank slate")_

-o-O-o-O-o-

-**III: ****kinētikos**-

-o-O-o-

Kuga usually knocked so softly that there was no way even a _yearning _room occupant would hear. He, of course, didn't realize this at all, and tended to think most people simply didn't want to see him, and regarded this with long-suffering patience and understanding.

Perhaps then, it was the only logical conclusion that his bond with Kaoru--fractured and fragmented as it was, was what alerted her enough to shout through the door, "Go away!"

Kuga flinched, then forced himself to relax. He was the parent, he reminded himself. Or...was _supposed_ to be the parent. A better parent than a woman who called her own child a demon, at least. He winced, again, unrealizing. "Kaoru...please let me in." He murmured through the door.

"I don't want to see you! I don't want you to come in! Go away! Go away _now_! You just want to tell me I'm wrong! Leave me alone!"

Kuga shut his eyes tightly, fingers on the door. Nobody was around to see him. Expression flickered on his face to match his traitorous eyes--sadness, longing, grief. "Kaoru..."

A sudden snort in the hall caught his attention, and he jumped. He stared bewilderedly at Mizunagi's malicious smile. "Want _me_ to have another go at her? You could go off and have a private cry. It looks like that's what you're about ready to do." Kuga's face went rigid in panic. "_Don't you dare_!" He hissed in a whisper more of fear than anger. "You've done more than enough today!"

"Don't talk to me!" Kaoru shouted through the door, obviously noticing there was speech on the other side of the door, but also quite obviously missing its content. Mizunagi raised his dark eyebrows. "Spoiled little princess, isn't she?" He murmured back, with a tinge of malicious laughter in his voice. Kuga looked uncomfortable. "You mustn't...say such things..." He murmured, fingers still spread against Kaoru's door like a religious penitant reverencing--or perhaps protecting--a relic.

"What? Princess? What else would she be? Remember with Kirihara? What she called the soldiers-?"Mizunagi was ready to say something else, when the door creaked open. Kaoru glared at Kuga. "_Stop talking_. I'm trying to sleep."

"Your music is ten times as loud as Kuga's voice, sweet pea." Mizunagi added in, leaning against a wall with mischief in his dark eyes.

Kuga looked at him in distress and disgust, and pushed into the room with an, "Excuse me." quickly shutting the door behind him.

Kaoru's face twisted. "Get out! Get out!" She screamed, raising her tiny, ineffectual, black-nailed fists at him. Kuga barely even flinched at the blows, though, gently catching her wrists. "Kaoru, _please_." He murmured.

Kaoru went silent and stared at him, her face twisting further. She snatched her wrists away, turning impetuously in a sweep of blond curls, and throwing herself onto her bed, tangling the blankets around her into a cocoon. "Leave me _alone_!" She snarled, muffled by the blankets. Kuga didn't appear to hear, turning down her music, and settling his fingers onto a forlorn-looking stuffed rabbit. He gazed at it with a very thoughtful, even nostalgic expression, fingers brushing over one ragged ear, barely touching it. When he'd turned around again, with the toy cradled in his hands, the expression had given way to a fairly earnest tenderness no matter how much he seemed to intend it not to.

He crossed the room and bent at the bedside, peering into the mess of blankets. "Kaoru..." Kaoru's striped eyes gazed out at him defiantly from her tangle of blankets.

"Kaoru...I'm not here to hurt your feelings."

Kaoru made a noise, twisting to avoid his face, pulling the blanket over her own, and trying to make herself just a lump. Kuga gently pushed her back over, pulling aside the folds of fabric. Kaoru tried to pull it back, but Kuga's grip held firm as he pushed the rabbit into her curled fingers.

"Get out..." Kaoru whispered, twisting her head to try to get away, fingers clenching a stuffed ear. Kuga silently smoothed her hair. "Get out." She said again.

Kuga didn't move, still stroking her hair, soothing her. "I'm sorry." he said. "I'm sorry for what they said. They didn't mean anything by it."

Kaoru's face twisted again in anger, tugging hard at the rabbit's ear. "_Kasei_ did." She spat. "You should kick him out. Why is he even _here_? I hate his eyes. He doesn't even look at me, and when he does, he makes me angry. Kick him out! Put him on the street!" Kuga blanched. "I'm...not going to do that." Kaoru would never know how much of his willpower it took to say that even when she had no power over him at all. "Besides...Ama-Inu..." He hesitated.

Kaoru glared at him, pulling harder at the rabbit's ear, seams straining. "What? You're _scared_ of him? He's a fool. And he can follow him out onto the street like the dog he is. _Ama-Inu_...what sort of a name is _that_, anyway? _Sea Dog_?"

"Ama-Inu doesn't frighten me." Kuga said with perfect honesty. Wiz-Dom blood ran through his veins, and he was an exorcist...well...former exorcist. ('Ex-Exorcist?' That was how Mizunagi had put it once, wasn't it?) "But it's hardly right for me to kick them out because one of them said something... You...might be overreacting." Kuga's insides cringed at that. It was a role he played which forced those words, and words like them to his lips. And Kaoru knew they had little, if any substance. She glared at him, severing the rabbit's ear with a lengthy ripping noise that made Kuga's insides tighten even more. The black button eyes seemed to stare at him in silent pain, in betrayal.

"I'm _not_ overreacting." Kaoru spat.

There was a snort from behind them both, and they turned as one. Mizunagi grinned. "Sorry. But you want to kick out two people from the house just because of a misunderstanding? Sweet pea, you've got to have some tea to calm those hormones. A little teaparty with all those dolls of yours..."

"_Mizunagi_!" Kuga whispered, dead white. He felt betrayed, _watched_.

"You!" Kaoru howled. "How did _you_ get in here?" Mizunagi spread his hands, "You left the door open. Sorry to intrude." But Kuga knew with horror that he hadn't. He'd locked the door behind him to _avoid_ this, exactly. He'd been sure to...

Mizunagi had _teleported_ in. He'd used his powers. RIGHT in front of Kaoru. She hadn't noticed this time. Small mercies that, but still...

What was he _thinking_?

Kaoru still didn't remember the aquarian age at _all_. With any luck, she never would. She had no _idea _the powers of the men she wanted to dismiss from the house over a lunch-time argument. No idea of her _own_ powers which had pulled them all there... _All _of them had agreed in privacy behind her unremembering back not to use their powers in front of her. Certainly, some things couldn't be helped, like Kasei's flickering tattoo, or Ama-Inu's ruby eyes and unusual omnivority. But _Mizunagi_ knew better than to show off his psychic powers so blatently.

He'd done it _intentionally_. That was the only possible explanation. And Kuga couldn't think of a thing to say to him in front of Kaoru.

To imagine what he would have been stuck trying to explain had Mizunagi been caught simply waltzing out of the closet--that was where he had to have teleported to, after all--was one of the most horrifying scenes possible. And he couldn't think of a thing to say to him. Deliberately provoking her, deliberately showing off his powers, deliberately proving himself a voyeur of sorts as he went arund, and laughed at every kind word Kuga tried to say, everything he did trying to keep everything together...

Didn't he know how much it would hurt Kaoru to start to remember and resume the burden of being a mindbreaker?

Mizunagi's black eyes glittered when they rested on him. Inside, the psychic was _laughing_, he knew...

That settled it. Mizunagi _knew_. He just didn't care.

Kuga hated him so utterly and so ineffectually...

"Well I want you to go away. _I'm_ talking to father, not to you." Kaoru hissed impetuously. Mizunagi only smiled. "But why not double the advice? How hard could it be? Besides, I've known you nearly as long as he has." Kuga's breath froze in his throat. _Don't, Mizunagi. Don't do this. You'll spoil everything..._

Kuga wasn't actually stupid. He was gentle at his core, but not stupid. And he could see why Mizunagi could do this suddenly. Who, after all, could Kuga tell? If he told Ama-Inu and Kasei... Ama-Inu, well, who knew what he'd do? But Kasei would _kill_ him. And he would do it without a worry int he world. He wouldn't even bother with a fair fight. he'd simply find the moment, and he'd run him through, and leave him. And he wouldn't forget. Kasei took threats very seriously, and he was so _empty_ inside. Kuga shuddered privately. The eastern emptiness in him. Some would call it Nirvana that Kasei had acheived. To Kuga it was nothing more than a frightful black hole. Remorseless, loveless, almost thoughtless.

It wouldn't matter what Ama-Inu would say about it, but he couldn't tell him without telling Kasei. Ama-Inu had no subtlety. He loved the fight. He loved life. And in a way, he had no remorse either. He lived an animal's life--Kill or be killed--and he embraced it with an unholy sort of glee.

If Kasei found out, he'd kill Mizunagi, and Ama-Inu would help him, just out of the interest of a fight.

Kuga couldn't say anything. And Mizunagi had to know it.

No...Not just know it. He'd _planned_ this.

"Think of me as the indulgent uncle if you'd like." Mizunagi added. "I only want the best for my little girl. Don't underestimate me."

"The best for me is if you leave me _alone_." growled the mindbreaker, a hand bunched in her black-petticoated skirt.

"Ah, well. That, I'd rather not do. I could sit in the background here. You'd hardly notice me." Mizunagi said, settling himself with a theatric little sprawl into the chair beside Kaoru's desk, a stiff gothic-black ballet dress hung over the back of it, giving him the impression of sitting on a rather black and scratchy little cloud. "Go on, go on." Mizunagi said, with a wave of his hand, and a rigid smile. His hand slid into a drawer almost before he'd finished the words. "Oh my!" He exclaimed with marvelously poor theatrics. "What's this?" He opened the book and began to read aloud:

"_I am a black sheep, accepted by no one. Living in a hateful house of men who all act as though I'm some specimin of princess doll. I hate their faces and their hands, and the way they all watch me, but don't understand-_"

"GIVE THAT BACK!" Kaoru screamed, launching herself from the bed with a violence and hurling the one-eared rabbit with dreadful speed. Mizunagi gave a short, sharp laugh of delight, blocking the mutilated plush with the hardcover journal. It bounced off harmlessly, and he caught Kaoru by the wrists, keeping out of the way of her feet.

"Mizunagi, stop it!" Kuga cried, horrified to his core by the spectacle.

Mizunagi however, kept laughing as Kaoru screamed at him. It was the first time Kuga had _ever_ heard Mizunagi laugh as though he were enjoying himself. It was a cruel and terrible little dance as Kaoru jerked ineffectual fists, and Mizunagi kept laughing and laughing... The motion seemed to spin. Mizunagi was spinning her, as though it were all a game, as though it were ecstasy--a celebration of motion.

Kuga was on his feet before he knew what he was doing, wrenching the two of them apart, murder in his eyes. The chair tumbled to the ground with a horrible scraping noise. Mizunagi smiled at him with viciousness. "You're stretching my shirt." He said, laughter still dancing in his voice, in his eyes. _Go ahead_. His eyes seemed to say. _Give me a reason. You know you want this_.

Kuga's hand trembled. "She told you to get out. She doesn't want you in here, and neither do I." Kuga said quietly, priestly training the only thing keeping his voice steady.

"She told _you_ to get out too." Mizunagi said with a perfectly delighted little smile, his teeth very white and perfect. His eyes crinkled in absolute joy. And Kuga flinched at the words, glancing at Kaoru and realizing...

She was huddled on the ground, her black-nailed hands biting into the plush of her animal, diary against her chest and loathing betrayal in her eyes.

_I failed you. I let him in, and he did this, and you don't even know why. And you don't know what he's ruining either._

But another part of him pointed out to him that Kaoru was miserable. The diary had proved that. She was miserable. She _wasn't_ better. And his heart ached for her.

"I don't want to see either of you. Get _out_." Kaoru spat.

Kuga's brown eyes widened and he stared at her, aghast, and Mizuangi smiled blissfully at the both of them as the other opened his mouth to speak, to feebly defend himself...

There was a deafening crash from downstairs, and a high, canine howl.

Mizunagi's smile faded, and he frowned. "Shit." He said, pulling his shirt free of Kuga's weakened grasp. "What's their problem, anyway? I can't leave them alone for a minute. Like _children_..." He muttered, rubbing at his hair, and palming himself a cigarette from his back pocket.

Kuga stared at Kaoru, distressed. She was huddling around her journal, the head very nearly pull off of her little doll, glaring silent fury at the floor.

He bent down beside her, ignoring Mizuangi, his hands outstretched to comfort her. He remembered the first time he'd seen her--a girl wrapped up in a little blanket with the saddest eyes peering out sorrowfully at the world... His heart had gone out to her then, and it did again now.

She'd never remember the times she'd called to him, the slender thread of trust they'd had when she'd been his master, the safety of being near him because he was just a piece of puppeted meat. And he hadn't minded, hadn't minded at all--because she'd needed them all, and as long as she'd thought he was nothing at all, he'd been able to comfort her. As long as she'd refused to se that he actually cared for her like his own child, she'd tolerated his presence, his comfort, but now...

Kaoru slapped away his hand with a toss of hair. "_Don't_ touch me." She hissed. "Just get out. I don't want to see anybody." The man's face faltered, and his hands lowered. _Now she pushes even me away. How long can she live like this? She _needs_ us..._

"Don't try and fight it, Kuga. She wants to be alone. Come on. We should see if someone broke in, or the other guys are just being stupid again." Mizuangi said with his easy bluntness. And Kuga remembered his anger. Kaoru woudl have to wait. He needed to talk to Mizunagi. He needed to catch him. So he followed after, whispering at the door as he closed it. "I'm sorry, Kaoru."

He waited a moment, and he heard the music turn up again, and scream at the door with mind-numbing bass.

-o-O-o-

Mizunagi was waiting for him near the stairs, and he smiled around his cigarette. "You alright?"

Kuga turned his eyes to him. "I know what you're doing." He said quietly, almost inaudibly, anger behind his soft voice.

Mizunagi smiled beautifically. "Of course you do." Blue smoke snaked from between his teeth, amking him look like a demon. "But can you think of anything to stop me?"

Silence was his only response accompanying Kuga's glare.

Mizunagi shrugged, sighing. "Then that's too bad."

Kuga gritted his teeth. "What makes you so sure I won't tell any of the others?"

"Well you won't want to see me killed or...at least them _trying_ to kill me." He paused. "You ever see anyone try to kill a man that can teleport? It's not really a fair fight. I can do it much faster than you might think over short distances." Mizunagi turned his face to him and finally, lazily shrugged. "You'll be watching for your chance to stop me. You'll want to fix it all on your own and keep everyone living happily, though."

Kuga nodded. That about covered it.

"Well," Mizunagi gave an expansive gesture, sweeping his cigarette around. "In that case you're going to have to stay quiet and wait for the best moment, aren't you?" He patted Kuga's arm easily, twisting his blank expression around into a smile that only reached the mouth. "Come on. Let's go see if they've managed to kill eachother. Your job will be that much harder if _they _start lapsing too. It's terrible, the moral degeneration these days. You just can't seem to trust _anyone_."

"Why should I trust you again?"

"Ah." The psychic smiled again. "I'm hurt. We're comrades, aren't we?" He blew smoke around him, glancing about for something. "They say war changes a man. So what's a man like if all he knows is war?"

"Is that some kind of riddle?" Kuga asked, frowning uneasily.

"Do you _think _it's a riddle?" Mizunagi looked at him pointedly. "Riddles generally have answers."

"You don't intend to change at all, do you?" Kuga whispered. "You'll just keep spouting cryptics at me to throw me off."

Mizunagi grinned. "If it _does_ have an answer, the question you should be asking is, 'Is the true man of war equipped for nothing but change?'"

Kuga's brows knit. "That's nothing but cyptic Bullsh..." He always have a funny delay, a funny guilty slur when he tried to swear. It was fairly pitiful to Mizunagi. "Bull_shit_?" He drew out. Kuga gave a wince. He clearly couldn't help it. Mizunagi grinned at him. "That's certainly one theory."

He grabbed Kuga by the tie, and leaned clsoe to his ear. The other man had hs hand on his sword in an instant, stiffening when he realized he couldn't actually use it. "Try and keep up." He whispered, pulling back in a cloud of smoke and smiling. "I'm going downstairs." He vanished in wisps, in ribbons of self, his blue eyes glittering.

Kuga's fingers tightened around the hilt of hsi sword, then he forced them away, covering his face with his hands.

"_Alea iecta est._" He whispered in a groan.

-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-

Review replies to the esteemed Foolish Mortal-sama will take place more privately in this case, since I can communicate with her so, and actually, in all technicalities, they probably already have. (I know you guys who might otherwise be reading are all crushed since you can't eavesdrop. _Crushed_. You'll probably never be the same. I will carry that emotional burden for the rest of my life. What a monster I am!)

But as she did point out, my chapter-thingie was wrong. I put in "Patris" because I wasn't thinking well. The chapter-title in the selector has now been changed to "Pater" as it should have been, and as it appeared in the title-header in the chapter text itself. Both technially still mean "father", but FM-san is right about the dative/ablative thing. It's just not the right tense by any stretch of the imagination unless I meant a reference to the religious phrase "E Nomine Patris, et filio, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen" which, while interesting, was not my intention. Sorry for offending you, latin-fluents.

While I was busy fixing the title and such for chapter two, I actually put up the later draft of that chapter. It's not much different, but I figured out how to explain a few things better, so I altered it. (And now it beats to death the point that Kuga is a wuss, and Ama-Inu is basically "man's best friend" and has all the brainpower of a sweet potato pie.) I don't normally do that, even though re-reading my stuff always makes me edit it, but this time I made an exception. If anyone other than FM-san notices it, I will make Kuga a big plate of takoyaki, and watch his priceless expression of astonishment as I bestow it upon him. (Like _anyone's _ever _nice_ to Kuga...)

Anyway, in the time since I put up the first two chapters, I've had some thoughts and initial brainstorms about possible outcomes for the fic, and I might actually have a direction.

Also, since the people of the RP comm I was on before this, basically kicked me off for distractability, I needed an outlet for my idiocy. So I joined another RP, and I play as Tracer and Katan of _Angel Sanctuary_. As you can imagine, playing Tracer on a regular basis should be enough to make anyone more cheerful. Really nice, open little place. (Also in need of more people--shameless plug much? I'd really love some _Juvenile Orion_ people, though. I can wish, right? It's pan-fandom and allows Original Characters and basically just focused on character-development. What more could you want?)

Tracer's sideways ramblings about inverse werecats and spirit mirrors and just how much he'd like up the robe of a certain priest somehow helped me get this chapter done. I don't know how. I don't know why. But there you go. (I think it was the Mizunagi in this. Mizunagi's like Tracer except a lot nastier? I don't know...It's had to explain.) Bit of a fire under my tail anyway.

You'll recall the thinly-veiled physics references in th last chapter? Well you call should know what "kinetic" energy is. Energy of motion. Hurrah! Mizunagi's stirring the pot and putting things back into motion. (Ahh, Mizunagi. You are a plot device worth ballads and songs...)

Happy points to anyone who can guess what Kuga said in the last line of the chapter!

While we're on the subject of more chapter-relevant notes, you know who Kaoru reminds me of? Akito. From _Fruits Basket_. (Pre-chapter-97-Akito, by the way. I always liked him better when he was nasty...) Really very similar. Except Kaoru doesn't get such a shocking plot twist. (Don't spoil it, anyone who knows what I'm talking about I'm still stuck someplace in book 23...Oh, shoujo manga!) She's a bit of a brat, though. Even when things go well, she wants to camp it up and make it all about her.

Why do I always like such nasty characters? Maybe I should get my head checked... (I really like Mizuangi, too. His _Tabula Rasa_ self is just _so_ much nastier than his _Gracious Wings_ incarnation. So much more fun...)

You can insert your own tasteless goth-hyping soundtrack in there of course when Kaoru starts pounding out loudness on her stereo. (Though you should make sure it still has good instrumental tones, etc.) Heh. Sakurako Gokurakuin _does_ reference the original "Gloomy Sunday" in her series _Catagory:Freaks_, just out of side-interest. (Supposedly it's one of those legends of "if you hear this song, you'll die"?) And of course Emilie Autumn goes off and makes a rather nice little song called "Gloomy Sunday" herself. So it's enough to doom me to think of pink-haired gothic ladies when I write Kaoru, ever after. I fail on so many levels for getting stuff stuck in my auditory head-tracks.

Moral of this chapter?

Roundabout obscure references half-connecting in eachother help you get stuff done. (That and procrastinating on, or altogether _not doing _papers for classes.)

Good news otherwise? I'm doing with this what I did for GW. I'm writing crazy ahead-scenes, and my plot's starting to fit together. (Under the pretense of personal challenge, of course: "Hey, self! Yeah, you, Skunky! Why don't you shake things up and write something that doesn't follow your previous fandom incarnations just to see if you can?" Pretty good incentive...)

I've already figured out what to do with Lafayel. I've figured out what I'm going to do with Ama-Inu and Kasei, and really what else was there to worry about?

So...I think I know how to get it done if I accelerate it a little.

Mm...action...Mizunagi, you're full of plot-device wonder. Every fandom should have one of you. (happy)

Chapter four I'll try to get together soon. (I only have about two or three more week of school before I go on the summer hiatus where I write insane amounts and updating properly becomes a hassle... Also not doing so well on some classes because sophomore-moron me took all 4000 levels this semester, so wish me luck.)

_I miss the fans (Reviews were nice)_

_I miss your friends (the hordes of mice)._

_Oh, for the fandom loved of yore,_

_Alas! The end! My brain is sore..._


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